Tag Archives: reading

I’m in crazy writer’s mode this week, but I also need some downtime every night before I go to sleep. Reading something another person wrote is the best way to clear my head. This week I’m lucky enough to be reading an advanced copy of Alone by Kendra Elliot (romantic suspense). I’m only a quarter of the way thru, and I tell you, I’m dying to know who did it and why already!

Because I hate to waste time, I’m also listening to book on audio in the car and at the gym. This month’s choice is Shadow’s Edge by J. T. Geissinger (paranormal romance). The gorgeous cover has tempted me for a long time. I’m happy to say that the prose is simply beautiful, and the story is making me actually want to climb on the elliptical trainer – quite an accomplishment.

As you all know, I’m a huge fan of gay romance. I love to read it and I write it. So, I figured I”d use my post today as a bit of blatant promotion for my my good friend, Ellis Carrington. Ellis’s latest release is a novella entitled Forbidden Love (Amor Prohibido). It’s a great story, in English not Spanish as the alternate title might imply, and it’s definitely worth checking out. Let me tell you a little bit about it.

Jacob Freehan has no job, no man, and no motivation. In pain both from ending a long-term abusive relationship and a severe back injury, he escapes to the sunny seaside town of Puerto Morelos, Mexico for a little yoga, a little R&R, and possibly a place to quietly end his own life.

Pakal is a centuries-old immortal Mayan spirit guide who has been charged with getting Jacob on the path toward healing. Romantic involvement with a spirit charge is strictly forbidden, and it has never been a problem…until now. Pakal sees something special in Jacob, but failure to keep a rapidly growing attraction at bay could result in Jacob losing his life and Pakal being condemned to the Underworld forever…

Now meet Ellis:

Romance requires a hopeful ending and that is why Ellis Carrington is driven to write it. She loves to create original stories that are gritty, witty, and a little unexpected, just like the heroes who inhabit them. Her guys come in both human and non-human form because spirit guides and vampires deserve love too. Her favorite things are great friends, great music, and books that make her laugh and cry like there’s no tomorrow. You can find out more about Ellis at her website, Twitter, or Facebook.

If you’re looking for a little man love mixed with your paranormal romance then check out Forbidden Love.

What makes a hero sexy? When a friend of mine posed this topic to me a while back, I figured this would be a pretty easy question to answer. The more I thought about it, I realized it wasn’t as easy of a question to answer as I’d hoped. Why? In part because sexy, in my opinion, is very subjective. What one person finds attractive another won’t. So, I started thinking about some of the characters I found sexy in books and what traits made made them so appealing.

At the top of my list is Roarke from J.D. Robb’s In Death series. I’ll also include both Joe Morelli and Ranger from the Stephanie Plum series. What do these particular characters have in common?

First they’re all attractive. That’s part of the fantasy after all isn’t it. As a reader, I like to have pretty people wandering through my head as I’m told a story. Depending on the writer they run the gambit on how descriptive they are in describing their characters attractiveness, but they leave you just enough room to formulate your own image of that character whether it be a celebrity of something that’s purely a figment of your own imagination.

Another shared characteristic of sexy heroes is intelligence. Let’s face it, your character could be an Adonis, but it they’re dumb as a stump no one is going to read on. Me personally, I have a thing for the geeky hero. For me super smart is extremely sexy.

A third trait that I think is part of the sexy hero formula is confidence. Jumping back to the three characters I mentioned everyone one of them is a badass and they know it. It’s not only because they can kick ass. It’s their attitude it just drips with power and self assurance. It’s because of that confidence that it’s uber sexy when they make themselves vulnerable to the person that they love.

I’m sure there are more traits that make up a sexy hero these are just a few that come off the top of my head. But I’ll put it out there to you. What do you think makes a hero sexy and memorable?

Like this:

At the moment, I’m in the middle of going through edits on my latest WIP. In between each draft I like to take a little time to clear my head so I can come back to it fresh. One of the things I like to do is go back to my keeper shelf. All of us reading fans have them. That collection of books you hold onto at all costs because they are autographed or maybe just because.

Recently, I spent sometime with Johanna Lindsey’s backlist. I remembered why I fell in love with Man of My Dreams and why Angel got me hooked on reading romance novels. Let me share a few others that I’ve got on my keeper shelf.

In this day day and age of ebooks it easy to keep all of your books because they really don’t take any space so perhaps instead of asking what’s on your keeper shelf, the better question is what’s on your frequently reread list? I’d love to know because when I get to the end of this round of edits I’m going to read something new(to me, at least) and I’m open to suggestions.

If you’re writing romance and you haven’t read Monday’s post by Caridad Pineiro about writing sexy love scenes you may want to check it out. She offers some really terrific tips.

Today I want to talk about favorite love scenes. The romance genre encompasses a wide range of sub-genres. At one end of the spectrum are inspirational romances, where the sexual contact is kept at a minimum and is usually behind closed doors. At the other end is erotic romance which leaves little to the imagination. Personally, I enjoy a fairly wide range of love scenes, but most definitely door open scenes. I not really a huge fan of fade to black unless it’s warranted. As long as the placement of the love scene and the progression of the relationship make sense, bring it on.

One of my favorite love scenes is between Eve and Roarke in Naked in Death by J.D. Robb. When these two make love for the first time they get so much more then they expected. Both of them experience something that they’ve never found with anyone else, and that they weren’t even sure they were capable of feeling. It’s sexy, touching, and truly memorable.

Another scene I like is Robin and Jules in Force of Nature by Suzanne Brockmann. I think it’s a fave partly because Suz made us wait so long for these two men to get together. She really built the tension in the previous books. Every time they were in a scene together I would shout at the book “Just kiss him already!” Getting back to my point, this is subtle and suggestive love scene. The love making is not explicit at all, but still sexy as hell. However, the best part of the scene is the afterglow in Robin’s POV. He’s just so awed that this man that he’s been in love with for years is finally here in his arms. I just loved it.

So I’m wondering, as a reader, how do you prefer your love scenes and do you have a favorite?

The other day I started editing a book I wrote a number of years ago. I must say it was a little scary re-reading my early writing. I alternated between cringing and being pleasantly surprised. Still, I’ve learned a lot and grown as a writer since I originally wrote the story. I know I can improve the story and hopefully make it fit for public viewing. However, the one thing that hasn’t changed in all this time is my love of writing paranormal stories.

I love having the freedom to create my own world and make up my own rules. I love mixing reality and science with the seemingly impossible. As a reader I enjoy being drawn into strange new worlds whether they be just a few degrees off normal or a land far, far away. Getting swept up in exploring the mythology that another author has created is part of the fun. With the popularity of books like Twilight and the Sookie Stackhouse series, I’m clearly not the only one enamored of this genre. However, as much as I enjoy a sexy shape shifter or dark and brooding vampire, there is one thing I like better.

I love stories about people with psychic abilities. Precognition, telekenesis, whatever, I find all of it fascinating. I figure the reason I enjoy stories about psychics so much is because they appeal both to my creative side as well as my inner science geek. The idea that there are amazing abilities hidden deep within untapped areas of the human brain is a cool concept to me. It gives me all types of inspiration. Prime example my current WIP involves a character with telekinetic abilities. He gets upset and things start flying around the room. I’m having fun writing it especially now that I’m getting into the action of the story and he’ll get to use this ability to defend himself.